Leave No Trace is both a set of principles, and an organization that promotes those principles. The principles are designed to assist outdoor enthusiasts with their decisions about how to reduce their impacts when they hike, camp, picnic, snowshoe, run, bike, hunt, paddle, ride horses, fish, ski or climb.
The organization strives to educate all those who enjoy the outdoors about the nature of their recreational impacts as well as techniques to prevent and minimize such impacts. Leave No Trace is an educational and ethical program, not a set of rules and regulations. Leave No Trace information helps public land visitors understand and practice minimum impact skills and ethics.
The roots of Leave No Trace (LNT) can be traced to the 1970s and 1980s. In those decades, responding to the emerging trend of outdoor activities from cities, United States Forest Service, and the National Park Service started to teach their non-motorized visitors how to have a minimal impact on the land. Also in the 70s, many green groups were advocating minimum impact camping techniques.
Since its founding in 1994, Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics has provided training in every state in the U.S. and over 25 countries. There are more than 25,000 active volunteers and members who help provide training and outreach that impacts more than 22 million people annually in the U.S. alone.
Friends of Nature (FON) is the first green organization to introduce LNT program in China. We have witnessed how the growing outdoor activity impacted and endangered our land environment in Beijing and also other areas. We believe that LNT is a good educational vehicle to enhance environmental awareness and friendly behavior to citizens and outdoor enthusiasts. In 2011, assisted by LNT master trainers from Taiwan, FON organized two LNT training camps. And now we have a LNT trainer team of more than 20 trainers. These trainers will help to outreach LNT to public, university students, outdoor leaders and other interested groups. In near future, FON will start more LNT activities in our nature education center based in Badaling Forest Park. We are looking forward to more partnerships and support from companies, outdoor clubs, educational entities and etc.
Friends of Nature is a charity partner of this year’s Genghis Khan Festival. It is envisaged that FON staff will provide environmental training for all interested parties during the event days in Xiwuqi. Donations can be given via the online registration form or on-site during the event.
As plenty of you are certainly aware, LNT follows similar initiatives across Europe and Nordic Ways is a keen supporter of this cause. As has become habit in major international amateur sports events, during the Genghis Khan Festival competitions we will introduce specifically marked zones around the food & drinking stations in which people can dump their garbage and wastepapers. People who are seen littering outside these zones run the risk of being disqualified from that day’s competition. Environmental protection concerns and benefits us all, so let’s keep the grasslands green!
Here’s a weblink to the international website of Leave No Trace.